As he takes on a career change from outfielder to pitcher, Anthony Gose has at least one attribute that might help

As a Rule 5 draft acquisition, Anthony Gose would have to be returned to the Rangers if he can't stick on the Astros' roster as a lefthanded reliever.

As a Rule 5 draft acquisition, Anthony Gose would have to be...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - No one in baseball seems to know who or what Anthony Gose truly is.

He was an outfielder. He could be a pitcher. At Astros spring training, he is a mystery.

Gose, 27, hit so inconsistently during five seasons in the majors and nearly a decade in professional baseball that he switched to pitching last season in the minors. He had not taken the mound in a competitive game since high school.

He lasted fewer than 11 innings for the Tigers' Class A affiliate before elbow inflammation cut off his reinvention, but the high-velocity fastballs that rifled from his left arm had wowed evaluators.

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In the offseason, Gose agreed to pitch for the Rangers, so long as they let him play the field. The Astros spoiled that arrangement. They plucked Gose away with a Rule 5 draft pick, which means the Astros must place him on their opening-day roster or return him to the Rangers.

The defending World Series champions want Gose to compete for a lefthanded reliever role. Since 1950, only seven major leaguers already established as position players went on to pitch 10 or more innings in their careers.

Gose is scheduled to make his spring training debut Saturday. With his chances so slim, how high could his confidence be?

Astros lefthander Anthony Gose is scheduled to make his spring debut Saturday against the Nationals.

Astros lefthander Anthony Gose is scheduled to make his spring debut Saturday against the Nationals.

Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

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Astros lefthander Anthony Gose is scheduled to make his spring debut Saturday against the Nationals.

Astros lefthander Anthony Gose is scheduled to make his spring debut Saturday against the Nationals.

Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

Outfielder-turned-Astros-pitcher Anthony Gose will keep you guessing

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"I throw a hundred - it's high," Gose said.

Pitchers tend not to boast about reaching 100 mph until they see the radar reading that proves it. Technically, Gose has maxed out at 99.8 mph, but he postures like a triple-digit man.

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Rare transition

Since 1950, only seven major leaguers established as position players went on to pitch at least 10 innings in the majors:

Player Season(s) IP W L Sv ERA

Hal Jeffcoat 1954-59 697 39 47 25 4.22

Johnny Lindell 1953 242 13 10 1 3.90

Johnny O'Brien 1956-58 61 1 3 0 5.61

Erv Dusak 1950-51 53 0 3 2 5.43

Eddie O'Brien 1956-58 16.1 1 0 0 3.31

Granny Hamner 1956-62 13.1 0 2 0 5.40

Jason Lane 2014 10.1 0 1 0 0.87

Someone had the audacity to ask him what else he throws.

"A curveball from hell," Gose said.

His eyes bulged. He did not blink for 11 seconds.

"I wouldn't wanna face you right now," someone else chimed in.

Gose fired back without wavering from his intense focus: "No, you don't."

Gose speaks with a rural Alabaman accent that, while it does not sound out the "G" in gerunds, seems suspiciously inconsistent. Sometimes his voice flattens for a crisp delivery. Occasionally, the drawl garbles words like they went down a garbage disposal. Published biographical information about Gose unanimously states he was raised in Bellflower, Calif.

What is consistent is his displeasure with having to convert full-time into a pitcher.

"It sucked," Gose said. "I didn't want to do it."

As a kid, he did not admire any pitchers.

"I just idolize Anthony Gose,'' he said. "Ain't no sense in tryin' be nobody else on the mound. You've got to go out there and be yourself.''

Gose talks about himself like Sidd Finch and sounds like Forrest Gump. It is difficult to tell if he is confident or comedic, curt or clever, factual or false.

The notion of Gose being himself on a mound or anywhere seemed up for debate - just not with him.

"No more of this the rest of the season," he said.

Gose has shunned reporters since. The one-time group interview he granted last month raised more questions about him.

Who is this guy? Where did he come from? Can a blessed left arm and a demonic curveball turn his career around?

Early bloomer

Gose grew up expecting to be in the majors. When he was 3 years old, neighbors stopped in the street to watch him hit in the front yard with a plastic bat and circle his house for a home run trot. Pitching at age 5, he became so fed up with the boys on his youth team one inning that he converted three outs himself: He caught a fly, he ran to second for a force out, and he chased down a runner retreating to first. At 6, he started practicing his autograph.

Speed and velocity separated him from teenage peers. He sprinted with the relaxed efficiency of a track star. His high school coach, Keith Tripp, made sure in practices to hit balls out of Gose's exceptional range.

"It was totally not for defensive purposes," Tripp said. "It was so I could watch him run."

As a home field tradition, a snippet from Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" or M.C. Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" plays each time a Bellflower High pitcher records a strikeout. An opposing coach chided Tripp after a game in which Gose inspired 15 music loops.

His fastball climbed to 92, then 94, and eventually peaked, according to Tripp, at 98 mph.

"Just gas," said Astros reliever Chris Devenski, who played against Gose, his eyes widening.

Success did not make pitching more enjoyable for Gose. He hated resting between outings. He paced the dugout, shouted out the signs of opposing catchers, and pestered Tripp, who then made sure to start Gose in center on days he did not pitch.

Pitching felt like a burden to him at times.

"He was throwing so hard that everyone wanted him to be a pitcher," Tripp said.

The pressure began in Little League and only has gotten stronger.

"All Anthony's life he got attention," said Malinda Gose, his mom. "Parents of his teammates would cheer him on before they cheered for their own children."

Tripp estimated Gose cost himself as much as $500,000 in the 2008 draft because he told teams he would not pitch in the pros. The Phillies took him in the second round anyway.

"At the time, you never thought you'd be putting him on the mound because he was such a good athlete in the outfield," said Steve Noworyta, the Phillies' director of minor league operations. "Just waiting for the bat to come along. But geez, he had a great arm."

His bat never came along. Teams were ready to take it away by 2016. After eight years in pro ball, Gose averaged .247 and whiffed 1,237 times in 4,256 at-bats. (By comparison, Albert Pujols has struck out 1,146 times in 17 seasons in the majors.)

To make matters worse, a public shouting match with Class AAA manager Lloyd McClendon led to the Tigers' suspending and demoting Gose.

Gose felt wronged by McClendon. Gose's family still harbors bitterness about a situation they said the Tigers mishandled. McClendon later said the disagreement was not a big deal and that he and Gose repaired their relationship.

Gose lost favor with the organization. The Tigers made a new plan for him on the mound last season, but he longed to be in the grass. He still would rather play the outfield.

"I miss being out there," he said last month. "That's where I started my career and had the most fun - bein' out there, havin' highlight catches and runnin' balls down."

His position and his public reputation changed after the incident with McClendon. He felt misrepresented by media coverage, which he since has considered more harmful than helpful.

He did not behave standoffishly around reporters when he was a rising star.

"He was a composed young man," said Eric Sondheimer, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, who profiled Gose as a high school player.

Sondheimer remembered Gose's character. He does not remember him being one. He does not recall Gose having a deep Southern accent.

"I'd be surprised if he did," Sondheimer said.

Sondheimer is not the only one.

"No, that is not what he sounded like," said Jason Lane, the Milwaukee Brewers' first-base coach and a former Astros outfielder.

Lane and Gose were teammates for the Blue Jays' AAA affiliate in 2012.

Even Tripp said: "When we went to lunch a couple of months ago, I was shocked at just how much his accent had changed."

Tripp and Gose had gone years without catching up. In that time, Gose had moved across the country to start a family and develop a life away from baseball.

He used to spend his boyhood summers with his grandmother in Sawyerville, Ala., a town of fewer than 1,500 people, where he put down his baseball bat and picked up a fishing rod. He now lives in Florence, a city in the northwest corner of the state.

His mother cackled when asked how her son developed his accent.

"He does everything a country boy does," she said.

His mother and father saw video of their son bulging his eyes and embellishing his personality.

"I saw his face. He was very tickled inside and didn't show it," Malinda Gose said. "Saying that stuff with a straight face, it makes other people laugh."

The Goses like to joke around. Especially when others do not expect it.

"We go out, we antagonize the waitresses, we antagonize the store clerks," Gose's mom said. "Humor is very high with us. We keep things very loose, very comfortable."

The art of the put-on

The air of fiction that surrounds Gose turns out to be a misperception. He is less Sidd Finch and Forrest Gump. He is Andy Kaufman, putting the joke on those around him.

Even the understanding that he does not like to pitch is not entirely true.

"I've probably got so many inefficiencies in my windup, but when you throw 100 (mph), it makes up for it," Gose said.

In a bullpen session, pitching coach Brent Strom corrected Gose's landing foot to align more with the center of home plate. Gose immediately dotted up pitches on the corners.

"That's some magic right there," Strom said.

Gose strolled off the mound appearing more satisfied than he may ever have been with pitching.

He ran into Justin Verlander, a former Tigers teammate.

"How do you like life as a pitcher?" Verlander said.

"I can get used to this," Gose replied. "What have I been doing with my life?"